International Regime, Domestic Politics and Telecommunications Technology: Jamaica in the Information Age
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City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 2004 International Regime, Domestic Politics and Telecommunications Technology: Jamaica in the Information Age Judith A. Duncker Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/1660 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] INTERNATIONAL REGIME, DOMESTIC POLITICS AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY: JAMAICA IN THE INFORMATION AGE by JUDITH A. DUNCKER A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Political Science in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2004 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 3144091 Copyright 2004 by Duncker, Judith A. All rights reserved. INFORMATION TO USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. ® UMI UMI Microform 3144091 Copyright 2004 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. copyright 2004 JUDITH ANNE DUNCKER All Rights Reserved Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. This Manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Political Science in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. [signature] 7 ^7 /0/ Date Chair of Examining Cenfimittee [signature] it/ ( f l f c N Date Executive Offitt:er Carolyn Sommerville Irving L. Markovitz Thomas Weiss Basil Wilson Supervisory Committee The City University of New York Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. iv Abstract INTERNATIONAL REGIME, DOMESTIC POLITICS AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY: JAMAICA IN THE INFORMATION AGE by Judith A. Duncker Adviser: Prof. Howard H. Lentner In September of 1988, the government of Jamaica heralded its official entry into the information industry with the establishment of the US$2 million Jamaica Digiport International facility. The significance of this announcement was surpassed only by the state’s decision to close the domestic telecommunications sector to competition as the global satellite regime and the global market embarked on its own course of liberalization. This decision spelt victory for one of two contending factions. On the one hand was Jamaica Promotions (Jarnpro), Jamaica’s economic development agency, which attempted to liberalize the sector's use of satellite technology with the operation of the American Satellite Company. On the other hand, the Ministry of Public Utility and Transport, in conjunction with the international company Cable and Wireless, Telecommunications of Jamaica, Industrial Commercial Development (ICD), the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. V National Investment Bank of Jamaica (NEBJ) and the international support of Comsat, elected to close the sector to competition. The closing of the domestic telecommunications sector to competition raised two salient questions which this dissertation addresses. First, what explains Jamaica’s failure to liberalize the sector’s use of satellite technology, as demonstrated in its 1988 decision to prevent competition? Second, how was it possible to undertake this measure amidst the powerful forces of global market liberalization trends in the telecommunications sector as well as within the international satellite regimes of Intelsat, whose principles and practices endorsed liberalization in the provision of satellite services? This dissertation concludes that there were two overriding sectoral characteristics which allowed Jamaica the ability to withstand these two powerful global forces. The first was compelling domestic interests in the sector that led to its closing. The second was the Intelsat regime itself, which acted to protect its monopoly. Intelsat's structure and the role played by signatories within the system functioned to protect the status quo of the single global organization and to bar the entry of other firms whose activities did not enhance Intelsat’s investment goals. As a result, Intelsat’s monopoly remained intact because of limitations placed by its signatories on the operation of competitive firms given that the liberalization of Jamaica’s domestic satellite services was inconsistent with its signatories and their interests. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. VI Preface This dissertation began as an interest in one small developing state’s attempt to acquire satellite technology and the extent to which the information highway could create new opportunities for development in small states that would allow them to bridge the economic gap between the industrialized and small developing states. However, it later shifted to the question of the impact of increasing economic openness upon a state’s capacity to govern its national economy1 The overriding questions of interest are how states respond to the challenges of managing their economic systems in the face of increasing economic openness? Are states free to follow different paths in response to openness? Do they abandon old norms and institutional arrangements and assume new policies and new arrangements that are consistent with competitive neo-liberal norms? If so, what might these paths be, and what determines the path a state pursues? This case study would forge a theoretical nexus between the dynamics of state, bureaucratic politics, international politics, multinational corporations, international telecommunications satellite policy, modernization and development and international satellite regimes to address this issue. Linda Weiss, ed. States in the Global Economy: Bringing Domestic Institutions Back In. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. v ii I am indeed grateful to those who have made this endeavor truly a labor of love. First and foremost, I would like to thank my dissertation team who endured the lengthy process to its completion. Thanks to Howard H. Lentner and Carolyn Somerville for seeing it to its completion. I am also thankful to Benjamin Rivlin, the former Director of the Ralph Bunche Institute whose support made my study at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY) possible. I am truly grateful to the late Ralph Bunche and the Bunche family, without whom my doctoral degree would not be possible. This dissertation is dedicated to my children - Desi, Stephanie, David and Jeremy and to my grandchildren Desiree and DaShawn. Special thanks is due to Mrs. Polly Brown, the former CEO at Jampro who facilitated the interviews and made it possible to review Jampro records. Special thanks is also due to Ms. Corrine McLarthy, Mrs. Brown’s predecessor, and Mr. Winston Gooden, a former Vice President of Jampro in charge of Production and Promotion from 1983 to 1994, both of whom were central to the conceptualization and implementation stages of the teleport project. Both availed themselves to provide the needed interviews that made the dissertation possible. Last, but by no means least, I am indebted to Mrs. Barbara Degroot who also labored along with me, ironing out all technical problems that emerged during the writing of the dissertation. Without her ability to skillfully maneuver through graphics problems and micros and macros complications of the software, the production of the dissertation would have been considerably delayed. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT...................................................................................................................................vi PREFACE...................................................................................................................................... vi TABLE OF CONTENTS................................ viii LIST OF TABLES................................................................................................ xi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.....................................................................................................xi APPENDIX I: ABBREVIATIONS.........................................................................................xii CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................